Co-ed debate brings mixed views over mixing classrooms

San Domenico student Elyzah Bernstein, second right, express her view in support of San Domerico's controversial announcement to open high school enrollment to boys. (Robert Tong/Marin Independent Journal)
Robert Tong

WHEN SAN DOMENICO School begins admitting boys to its high school in 2015, it will mark the end of single-gender education in Marin County.

While the Jan. 17 announcement at the San Anselmo institution has stirred emotions for those opposing the change, the decision to go co-educational, made earlier this month by San Domenico's board of directors, was driven by raw numbers: fewer families seeking all-girls educations for their daughters, translating to lower enrollment and less revenue, school administrators say.

"The demand for single-gender schools has been decreasing steadily over the last 20 years," said Cecily Stock, San Domenico's Head of School. "We saw this (switch to co-ed) as an opportunity to extend Dominican education, to prepare both young women and young men to be leaders."

While San Domenico's market has shrunk — enrollment has gradually decreased from 300 to 170 over the last half-century — there is still a demand for single-gender education.

The pending switch has caused such an uproar, that alumnae and parents of current students are trying to petition the school to postpone the change and further evaluate possible approaches to keeping the high school all-girls — while still financially viable. The lower school, which serves pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, is co-ed.

Some current students said they plan to transfer from San Domenico because of the school's decision to go co-ed. A Facebook page called "Keep San Domenico Upper School All Girls" has nearly 300 members, a number that continues to grow by the day.

Though not everyone connected to the school is distraught about the decision — many favor it, including students and parents — the backlash underscores the fervor that students and graduates of single-gender schools have for their alma maters.

Claire Fontana, a 1993 graduate of San Domenico, is one of the leading voices for keeping the school all-girls.

"It was just such a special part of my life that I wish other girls would get to experience," Fontana said. In high school, "we're trying to figure out who we are as people. There's no question that you feel far more accepted (in an all-girls setting) than in a co-ed environment."

The issue isn't about being anti-boys, Fontana said, but rather about providing the right learning environment for girls.

The debate is not isolated to this one campus in San Anselmo. Researchers throughout the country study whether a single-gender educational environment is better for learning. Many researchers say it is, at least for females.

Linda Sax, a professor in UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, said the numbers show that girls in single-gender schools tend to excel more.

"In general, I do find from the research that there does seem to be significant differences between single sex and co-ed education, in that the girls from single-sex schools tend to be more academically engaged," Sax said.

What the research doesn't show, Sax said, is whether single-gender schools tend to attract more academically driven students. If so, the implication is that the girls at these schools are likely to excel, regardless of the school's structure.

"The question is, can the effective elements of a single-sex environment translate to a co-ed environment," Sax said, "or is it necessary to have a single-sex environment?"

Others argue that the single-gender environment does matter. Without boys in the classroom, girls are said to feel safer to express themselves and are more likely to be assertive, since they aren't concerned about being judged by the opposite sex. That leads to speaking up more in class discussions and taking leadership roles in the school.

Kathy Schultz, dean of the School of Education at the all-women's Mills College in Oakland, said the single-gender environment is crucial for some females.

"There are plenty of young women who can do really well in any setting they're in, but for some people, to have that all-girls setting is really critical," Schultz said. "Every time an all-girls institution closes, you close off opportunities for a large number people who actually thrive in those institutions."

The question is, just how many are seeking out these institutions?

San Domenico found the answer is: not enough.

"In our feasibility study, we saw that in our marketplace there was just such a small percentage of girls and boys who were looking at single-gender education," said San Domenico board member Janet Reilly.

Between the shrinking demand for single-gender schools and the rising cost of attending independent private schools — annual tuition exceeds $30,000 at many of them — the pool of families seeking a school such as San Domenico is limited.

Going co-ed doubles the number of potential candidates.

Liz Schott, superintendent of the Kentfield School District, attended San Domenico and served as its director of admissions in the 1980s. Schott, who favors the switch to co-ed at the school, said the school was struggling with enrollment when she worked there 30 years ago.

"I'm impressed and shocked they've been able to keep the school open as long as they have, overcoming such obstacles of enrollment," Schott said. "It's incredibly difficult to keep operating at that size and maintain any desirable programs."

Marin's other private independent schools have survived with the co-ed format.

Branson School, in Ross has morphed several times in its nearly 100 years of existence. It's gone from a co-ed elementary school to an all-girls high school with day and boarding students. It added an all-boys school, Mount Tamalpais School, to the campus in 1972. Then within a decade, the boarding component of the girls' school was phased out, and the boys and girls were eventually combined into one school.

Marin Academy, in San Rafael, has been a co-ed school since opening in 1971. It took over a campus that had been vacated a year earlier with the closure of an all-boys military school.

Santa Catalina School in Monterey faces similar challenges as San Domenico. Like San Domenico, Santa Catalina's lower school is co-ed, while its upper school is all-girls and includes day and boarding students.

Administrators at Santa Catalina's upper school said families have more educational options than ever for their children — such as charter, Waldorf and Montessori schools — and children have more say in determining where they want to go to school. That creates a challenge to keep enrollment up.

"From a marketing standpoint, you have to think about the parents' perspective and the students' perspective, and really reach out to the two different audiences," said Rich Patterson, Santa Catalina's assistant head of school of advancement. "We realize in the admissions office that we have to work as hard as we've ever worked."

At San Domenico, they decided that remaining all girls was no longer feasible. So, they're adapting to the market in hopes of keeping their classrooms open long term to continue providing a private, college preparatory education — to whomever seeks it.

"We've been very successful," said Stock, San Domenico's Head of School. "But we want to continue to be successful and to be able to serve students."